Munky's Hawaiian Adventure

Dec. 15, 2017
Woke up at 8am today
First thing I did today was to try and charge all of my batteries. This has proven difficult with the van Martin gave me, as the cigarette lighter does not work. This means I have to attach my inverter directly to the engine. Not a huge task but annoying none the less. So after finally getting this sorted out and plugged in the rain starts coming down and I have to close the hood while I charge the batteries. This causes the charging station to overheat and I am left doing a dance between leaving the hood open to cool the chargers and then quickly closing it again as to not short everything out with the onslaught of rain.

Once I was able to get enough charge to get me through the day I headed for THD to go and price windows and a back door. While there I managed to pick up a toilet as well. So, after purchasing these items I get back to the van only to realize it’s not so easy to get into the back hatch. After 20 minutes of finagling and fighting with all of the doors and windows, I managed to get everything inside.

YouTube link: Day 40 Bamboozled Again

Once I arrived back to the property I realized I didn’t want to carry everything I had purchased(especially not the toilet) all the way across the lot into the home. So, I decided to pull the van all the way up as far as I could up the driveway. This apparently was a bad idea. I spent two hours stuck in the mud trying to get the van free. Using everything from plywood to 2×4’s to ratchet straps. Nothing worked. I called Nolan and he told me either he or Nicky might be able to drop by in the morning to help me out. I refuse to call Hank, as I am still severely pissed at that bum for the whole chainsaw debacle.

Dec. 16, 2017
Woke up at 6am
Today was a pretty productive day. I managed to get the window to the bedroom installed and was also able to install a toilet. I never knew just how happy something like this would have made me. I guess it is the little things in life that make us happy. Later on I covered the entire bathroom with black plastic on all sides and on top. Here’s hoping the caulking will get dry by tomorrow and I can have a fully functional toilet in my life. Even though it seemed like a pretty straight forward task it wasn’t without its own hiccups though. The toilet seat lid that came with the unit was already broken straight out of the box. So I will be returning it for a fixed one in the near tomorrow if possible.

I did, however, Continue reading “Day 41”

Dec. 17, 2017
Woke up at 9am
Today I am taking an off day from work. I need to go and run some errands, and also do some laundry. So I loaded up the van and headed out. First stop was to the laundromat so I can finally have some clean clothes. I was basically down to my swimwear at this point.

While the clothes were being washed I took advantage of the downtime and caught up on some paperwork for the project. I still need to finish my projections for the final price, so we will know where we stand. Right now I have spent about 2/3 of the entire budget for this leg of the home build. I will need to start looking at ways to shave off some costs moving forward.

After the laundry was complete I grabbed a quick bite to eat. Well, I ordered Pad Thai and Tom Yum soup. Both of which are not quick at all, but absolutely worth it. Continue reading “Day 42”

Dec. 18, 2017
Woke up at 7am
Got an early jump on things today. I made quick work of the remaining outside wall studs on the back wall. The only thing that was a little time consuming was the back door. I never like putting in doors and windows due to the immense amount of shim work that needs to be done. I know, I know, people will be saying “Well not if you do it right”, I get it. But it still doesn’t negate the fact that it is time-consuming and I spent the greater part of my day getting it installed.

Once that was finished I went back to the front of the house to frame up the windows above the door.

YouTube Video: Day 43 Finally Got My Roof Continue reading “Day 43”

Dec. 19, 2017
Woke up at 8am
Another great sleep last night. I think the bags under my eyes are finally starting to fade. A lot of that has to do with it being a bit warmer throughout the nights, and the temperature staying relatively stable. Not much work will be done in the next few days. It is supposed to rain and thunderstorm for the next several days. This really bums me out as I was hoping to get started on the roof by now. But, it is what it is, and I will make the most of it.

This is at 8:30am

This is by 7:30pm

Amount of rain to fall

This will finally give me a chance to get the final budget under wraps. It seems that the money that we had to pay out for the land clearing Continue reading “Day 44”

Dec. 20, 2017
Woke up at 9am
So last night was interesting to say the least. Late last night I got up to use the toilet and  while in the covered room I noticed that the water had gathered on top of the black plastic roof I had made. A huge bulge in the plastic had formed overhead. I would say there had to be at least 50 gallons of water up there by now and it was getting larger by the second. So I did what any normal person would do and stuck my hand up underneath to lift up on it. I was just trying to see how heavy this sucker was getting. And as my hand was right about to touch bottom portion of the upside down bubble the staples in the wood ripped away and the entire thing came pouring down on me like an old Nickelodeon show. Only instead of slime, it was about 50 plus gallons of rainwater.

YouTube Video: Day 45 S.O.S.

Continue reading “Day 45”

Dec. 21, 2017
Only slept for two hours(accumulated) last night.

So last night was bad. The rain kept me up all night and the cold was relentless. It was so bad I actually had a dream I caught pneumonia. When I woke up, I was shaking uncontrollably. I grabbed my phone and booked an Airbnb for the next couple of nights. In the morning the sun did actually come out for a couple of hours, so I tried to do a little bit of work but it was no use. I was too exhausted and weak. So I packed my things and headed for the rental.

While on my way, I called the owner for the address as the entire time I only had the street name to go off of. She told me which one it was and that her roommate would let me in. Well, no one was home, so I called her back to let her know. She asked me to knock on her roommates window, so I did. Nothing. She told me to try the garage door, but the inner door was locked. Continue reading “Day 46”

Dec. 22, 2017
Woke up at 9am today.
I had a very good sleep last night. In fact, a great nights sleep if I do say so myself.  It’s strange what four walls, a roof, and a bed can do for ones spirit. Just getting away from the site for one night was just what the doctor ordered. The best part came this morning. Knowing I could just get up, get ready, and go to work was wonderful. No gathering all my things, getting dressed without standing upright in the tent. No having to unpack all of the cooking equipment to make breakfast. Then gathering water to wash up all the dishes when finished. Then go and uncover all of the tools and get everything set
up for the workday. Actually, that last one I still had to do, but it was much more enjoyable without having to do all of the other things prior to it.

I got to the site and started making quick work of things. I finished all of the upper framing of the walls and was about to get started with the roofing material when I realized I needed to go and pick up my Solar Panel brackets that the guys forgot to give me when I picked up the panels. I remembered they are only working a half day
today as it will be closed for the remainder of the holiday season. This was from the 22nd of December until the 7th of January. That’s a long time to be without my panels.  So, I jumped in the van and headed there immediately. Once those were picked up I scooted over to Home Depot and picked up another roll of black plastic. This time I will cover the ceiling of my utility room after the framing is finished. Now I will have the perfect sloping roof and no longer have to worry about water gathering on top and flooding everything out again. Continue reading “Day 47”

Dec. 23, 2017
Woke up at 6:00am
Well actually, I got out of bed around 7am as I didn’t want it to end. But alas, I had to make it to Home Depot before the Albizia (Invasive species not native to Hawaii) tree killing class at 9am in my neighborhood. So I hurried off to THD and asked about their hurricane ties. I looked everywhere but I could not find the ones I needed. It showed that they had hundreds of them online, so I asked an associate. They looked it up and saw that the store had loads of them too but was unable to locate them as well. Well, after about an hour of trying to find these little buggers it turns out that the inventory for them got all screwed up somehow, so one of the managers pulled all the stock off the shelves in order to get them recounted and inventoried correctly. Needless to say, I went home empty-handed, and on top of that, I missed the Albizia class. I would have made it on time, but the manager who pulled the product never actually told anyone about what he had done. He just noticed the error and acted upon it. We only found out because another employee happened to be present on that day when they were pulled from the shelves and heard us talking about them as he was walking by.

YouTube link: Day 48 Commons and Rafters

So then it was back to the site to get going once again. Today I managed to put up all of the commons. This was an incredible feat for myself as I did not think I would be able to pull those two by sixes up on top of the platform by myself. Normally, no problem, but while trying to do a balancing act of death at the same time 15ft in the air is whole other story. But hey, I managed to get it done, and everything looks good so far. All of my measurements have been pretty spot on. Of course, some things need adjusting due to the curving of some of the wood, and also some mess ups of mine from earlier in the week with the walls. But we’re not building the Taj Mahal, so I will take what I can get at this point. Continue reading “Day 48”

Dec. 24, 2017
Woke up at 8am
I tried to get an early start today but there was no use. My body just would not cooperate. I spent the majority of my time getting all of the things together for solar power. I was able to get everything I needed, with the exception of a mad dash to Home Depot before they closed at 5pm. But once I got all the parts I needed, I went straight to work and hooked everything up as much as possible. I started out with just trying to use the little 400W inverter that I had from the car, but it was not powerful enough to run the fridge. So, I went ahead and plugged in the 1000W inverter and made sure everything was connected properly. Now I can officially say that I have power on my site. This definitely is a game changer, because I no longer need to go out and sit in the car while I get everything charged. Not the phone, not the batteries. I am no longer tied to the van. Not to mention, I also have an exorbitant amount of options for food now that I have a working fridge. I finished off my evening with a trip to the grocery store to make good use of the fridge straight away. This guy is definitely having tacos for dinner tonight! Merry Christmas Eve to me!

YouTube Link: Day 49 I’ve got POWAAA!!!